


Ad Momentum

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Coping, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Post - Skinny Dipper, Spoilers, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 21:44:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2748173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It was justifiable."</p><p>The tea cup in Henry's hand rattled against the saucer. He put it down quickly, pressing his fingers into his palm.<br/>"That doesn't change anything."</p><p> </p><p>  <b>Spoilers for Skinny Dipper. Set later that night.</b></p>
            </blockquote>





	Ad Momentum

"It was justifiable."

The tea cup in Henry's hand rattled against the saucer. He put it down quickly, pressing his fingers into his palm. "That doesn't change anything," he replied after a moment, and set the entire saucer aside.

"Maybe it doesn't, but it should."

Henry breathed, drawing in breath through his mouth and exhaling with a rush through his nose. He closed his eyes. "It doesn't."

Abe placed his hand on Henry's shoulder. Henry opened his eyes again.

"Don't do this to yourself, Henry."

Henry looked up at him wearily. Gone was the excited fervour  of the case and the day - his chance to subdue Ada- Lewis. ... Adam? - stolen away from him in an ill-fated evening. He felt the true weight of immortality pressing down on his chest for the first time in years. Suddenly, forever felt like forever again, and Henry felt nothing but the pain of it.

"I just..." he faltered. "I came home, and I thought you were dead." He met Abraham's gaze. "I thought you were dead, and over the pain, I felt that anger, and that's the anger that he's been trying to get me to feel, to tap into. The relief of knowing that you weren't..." He blew out another breath. "It was only overshadowed by the fear that he'd now carry out such action right in front of me and-"

"Henry," Abe interrupted. He squeezed his shoulder. "I'm fine."

Henry closed his eyes again and couldn't trust himself to open them again. He instead focussed on the fingers gripping into his skin, the blanket draped around his shoulders, and the stillness of the air after the police had left. He focussed on breathing.

"If something had happened to you," he said slowly, when he was sure that he could speak without his voice following suit of his hands trembling, "because of my... condition attracting undue attention, I would never forgive myself."

"Well, it didn't," Abe replied. "And it won't."

"You don't know that," Henry replied tiredly, prying his eyes open.

"Yes, I do," Abe said, looking down at him. "Because I know you. And you proved it tonight. I don't have to worry about anything, Henry. Do you know why?"

Henry sighed. "Why?"

"Because you're my dad." Abe smiled. "And Hell or high water, you protect your family, and the people you care about, and that's not a thing that a... psychopathic, _immortal_ serial killer would worry about."

Henry stared up at him wonderingly. He blinked once, and then again, before standing to pull Abraham into his arms.

"Ahh, there we go." Abraham patted him on the back forcefully. "There you are."

Henry tucked Abe's head against his chest, staring towards the faint glow of the city lights outside the antique shop's windows. Maybe Adam had gotten him to do exactly what he wanted tonight. Maybe he _had_ gotten him to kill. But there was still a difference, and there would always be a difference, and Henry held onto it tightly beneath his arms, and in Jo's hand over his, and in the pictures he kept in his downstairs office.

He had people to ground him and for them, Henry was ever eternally grateful.

"Gotta admit," Abe said, "I feel like I'm playing dad sometimes. Always running after you, trying to get things through that thick skull of yours..."

Henry laughed thinly. "So now you know what it's like."

Abraham laughed softly, and Henry again marvelled at how it was - after all of his years - one of the best sounds in the world.

It would be back to work soon, and Henry would be all the more stronger from tonight's events. The day would come where he would be able to look Adam in the eye and prove to him that it wasn't lack of empathy that defined their condition, but the love shared within it that made it truly and utterly worth living forever.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Because the world needs more Henry/Abe father-son relationship, and I just about had a conniption right along with Henry when I thought Abe might be dead.
> 
> Wow there's a lot of fanfic to be written after this episode ~~i'm sorry you all must be tired of seeing my name because i'm writing so much fic in this fandom now~~
> 
>  ~~ ~~~~~~I do not own _Forever_. Thanks for reading!


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